OT - Amazing Video of an SR-71

[COSteve]

SR-71

[gamekeeper]

Amazing.

[deerwhacker444]

That took some work..!

[Old Savage]

Wow that is great. They used for fly out of Palmdale which is about 5 miles from here. There are two of them down there now on static display. Very impressive to see it fly for real.

[Hobie]

Those things are just amazing.

[oic0]

Has a beautiful silhouette

[COSteve]

Yes they are. I remember in the 70s going to Edward AFB for some meetings where the bus they transported us in had blackout curtains on one side so we couldn't see in the hanger they had one in.

Years later I stopped by the Castle Air Museum in Atwater, CA, and they had one on static display that you could walk up to and touch. Times do change.

That place also has a B36 among their displayed AC. Its well worth going to visit. It's right outside the old entrance to Castle AFB which closed in the mid '90s.

[2571]

Amazing.

Wishthey had gotten Bin Laden with that one yesterday.

[mod71alaska]

Really enjoyed that video. Thanks for posting, Steve.

[GonnePhishin]

Man, that was truly awesome. Did you notice how the turbine engines spooled up like the big ones, and how it sounded while making the low level passes?
The pilot controlling her was really good since any mistakes would probably cost him $10-15k.

Thanks for sharing

[Rusty]

It looks like the only thing missing is the sonic boom.


They landed the real McCoy here at McDill about 20 years ago when it developed engine trouble over Turkey and this was the closest place to land. It was here a few days having repairs made but the whole base knew when it was leaving and turned out to see it. Someone that was there at the time told me that after it took off the first thing it had to do was hook up with a KC-135 before it could go on it's way.

[jeepnik]

I remember the rescue instructions in the AF Manual that had that info for all our, and a few other countries aircraft. A simple line drawing of only one small part of the fuselage. It had a door marked rescue. Simply run up, open the door, and pull the handle. That's all we were allowed to know way back then.

I only saw one flying. It did a low approach at the base I was stationed at. It wasn't there, then it was, then it wasn't. If you blinked you would have darned near missed it.

[TedH]

That is very cool.

A member of our local club has been building a SR-71 for several years. I believe his is somewhat bigger than this one, at 13 feet long. He's kept a very good web page with lots of photos of his progress. I can't even imagine the hours he has invested in this thing as it's all been handmade. Check out the progress from start to where he's currently at. It's very impressive.

http://www.mmrca.org/lance/sledframe.html

[Bogie35]

Super cool! Thanks for posting Steve!

bogie

[bogus bill]

That was great! I worked as a security guard for lockheed 1965 to 2000. I guarded the SR-71 countless hours, saw it fly about every time, knew the pilots and watching that was as close as you could get to the real deal! I have great respect for that builder-flyier.

[Ysabel Kid]

That was so cool!

[rjohns94]

pegged the kewl meter on that one.

[wavetrain75]

A guy at a heavy equipment shop that I rent from claims to have been a fueler for SR-71s. So far he hasn't tripped my BS Detector, but he says the top speed for an SR-71 was close to 15,000 mph. The log books had to be doctored to keep it in the 2500 mph range.

They've been retired for a while, so that can only mean that they've been rendered obsolete by something faster. The Aurora, I assume.

[COSteve]

A guy at a heavy equipment shop that I rent from claims to have been a fueler for SR-71s. So far he hasn't tripped my BS Detector, but he says the top speed for an SR-71 was close to 15,000 mph. The log books had to be doctored to keep it in the 2500 mph range.

They've been retired for a while, so that can only mean that they've been rendered obsolete by something faster. The Aurora, I assume.

I'll trip the BS meter with his claim of 15,000mph. That's on the order of Mac 20 and there's no way that the SR-71 could go anywhere near that fast. It's declassified top speed is Mach 3.2+. On 28 July 1976, an SR-71 broke the world record for its class: an 'absolute speed record' of 2,193.17 mph and an 'absolute altitude record' of 85,069 feet.

BTW, I worked for Lockheed / Martin / Lockheed Martin for most of over 41 years. My 1st job in 1966 was designing the C-5 military transport being built in Marietta, GA. While most of my career was spent on things that left the atmosphere, I'm quite familiar with the Blackbird's performance capabilities.

[Old Savage]

Well now, I had a patient who was a real straight arrow and worked with the cameras loading and unloading them. He said it was MUCH faster than they would admit and told me a remarkable time for to there and back. I'll have to figure out the speed.


OK now what he told me would be close to 5,000 mph.

[bogus bill]

I agree it was faster than admitted, however I would eat that plane if it was anything like that. Without googeling the claimed record, I was there the day it took off for its thought last flight at the time, (It came out of retirement for a bit, later), they flew it to wright-patterson doing a speed run on the last flight, coast to coast, and if memory serves, it was quite a bit less than two hours. I did hear some fantastic storys and claims while I worked there, but then again since I wasnt along, who can say for sure?

[spencer516]

I had a toy blue one in the late sixties. It wasn't near as cool as that one though!!
Thanks,
Tom

[Old Savage]

Bill you are probably right - the govt told the truth and ---- I am sure Becker would agree. Well the guy I knew is dead and I am sure you have heard many stories among the insiders there that never made it to the outside.

[COSteve]

While I listed the speed of the record it held, I know that it's capable of going faster, but as the drag increases at the square of the speed, 5,000mph in the heavy atmosphere below 100,000ft is reallllllllly hard to do. In addition, the skin temps generated at that speed would melt the titanium structure.

[bogus bill]

Okay, here is a story. I once heard a pilot radio in that he had a "flameout" and was over salt lake city and was going to land at palmdale in 14 minuets! Now that is 540 miles. That is over 2,314 MPH, NOT allowing the time to slow up for landing speed! He had it figured just about right and came sailing in right on his ETA!

[Slick]

I really miss seeing them fly… They were pretty common at Beale in northern CA. Now I see they went back to flying U2’s out of there.

[TedH]

Okay, here is a story. I once heard a pilot radio in that he had a "flameout" and was over salt lake city and was going to land at palmdale in 14 minuets! Now that is 540 miles. That is over 2,314 MPH, NOT allowing the time to slow up for landing speed! He had it figured just about right and came sailing in right on his ETA!

That's one way to increase your fuel economy! 540 miles of coasting, unbelievable.

[hkfrost]

I like at the landing, someone says, "...yah, voondabah'. Priceless

[bogus bill]

That flame out was probley on just one engine. I also knew tony levier. I understand he had a flame out on a F-104 and landed it okay. They only have the one engine!
The U-2s, are old, the modern ones are known as TR-2s. They are comparatively slow but fly high and can stay up longer than a pilot wants to sit. It is a glider with a jet engine. Once gary powers came down in one and was waiting at my gate for his wife to pick him up. (This was in the 60s right after he got out of prison in russia). I had a full dress harley parked by my gate. He eyeballed that for awhile then politly asked me if he could sit on it. I said ok, and kidingly told him I would give him the harley for a ride in the U-2. He said I wouldnt like it. He said it was like flying with your head in a goldfish bowl all day! Poor guy got killed flying a chopper for a news station later.